Opinions differ over likelihood of Tuite retrial

ESCONDIDO -- If attorneys for the man convicted of killing
Stephanie Crowe get their way, there will be a new trial for their
client, Richard Raymond Tuite. The reason: concerns that the jury
relied on a chart that made its way into the deliberation room,
even though it was not submitted as evidence in the trial.

But whether a new trial is likely, or what the fallout might be
if it does happen, is a question on which local legal experts
disagree.

The controversy surrounding the chart came up while attorneys
met with the jury following the verdict Wednesday, Tuite attorney
Brad Patton said.

After eight days of deliberations, the jury of four men and
eight women convicted the 35-year-old Tuite of voluntary
manslaughter in the 1998 stabbing death of the 12-year-old
Escondido girl. They acquitted Tuite of the more serious charges of
first- and second-degree murder.

Juror No. 6, who identified himself only as Joe, said after the
verdict that the chart in question -- which stated that a hair
found in Stephanie's hand could have belonged to Tuite or the
girl's brother -- convinced him that Tuite was in the house and
killed the girl.

Joe said he was having a hard time because he felt there was no
evidence that definitively placed Tuite in the home. During the
deliberations. he said, he was flipping through mounds of evidence
in the jury room when he came across the chart in question.

Patton said the chart was used in closing arguments, but was not
officially submitted into evidence and thus was not supposed to be
in the deliberation room.

Joe said that before he found the chart, 10 of the jurors had
agreed that Tuite was guilty. Joe, a retired Air Force veteran who
served two tours of duty in Vietnam in the late 1960s, said he and
Juror No. 1, a woman, were the holdouts.

The information on the chart, Joe said, changed his mind because
the hair could have been Tuite's. And, Joe said, he used the chart
to convince the other holdout that Tuite was guilty.

"The defense didn't argue this," Joe said. "All I know is that
board is there (in the jury room)."

Information regarding the hair was not discussed in detail at
the trial; the jury was only told that attorneys from both sides
agreed that no trace evidence of Tuite -- hairs, fibers and the
like -- was found in the Crowe home.

There was, in fact, a hair found. But Patton said Wednesday that
DNA testing was inconclusive and that it could have been Tuite's or
Stephanie's brother, Michael Crowe's.

It's a key issue, because the defense argued that Stephanie was
killed by Michael Crowe and his teenage buddies. Juror No. 6 said
the jury almost immediately rejected that argument "right off the
bat."

Tuite's trial lasted three months. A total of 592 items were
placed into evidence; most of them were in the jury's deliberation
room.

Patton said he first realized some charts were missing when he
and fellow defense attorney William Fletcher couldn't find them
after the jury went into deliberations.